Why did democracy not work in Arab countries?

Democracy in Arab countries has not yet borne its positive fruit, on the contrary, disagreements are observed in this region. As a reason for this, some researchers give the opinion that: "Democracy does not suit the Arabs, because democracy is characteristic of the western environment in which it arose, and the Arabs need a just dictator." How good do you think this is?
At first glance, the idea of a "just dictator" seems logical. A just dictator means a thoughtful, wise, powerful, conscientious, humane person. But is the existence of such a personality in today's reality close to reality or imaginary? Is there such a perfect person? On the contrary, as we know from history, dictatorship has been the foundation of injustice and corruption, mismanagement and chaos.
Ideological elite
We studied the causes of mistakes, shortcomings and stumbling blocks in the process of creating a real democratic life and came to the following conclusions:
- The lack of clarity of the concept of democracy in the minds of the people, which is considered the main foundation of democratic processes. However, the role of the people is very important in the course of democratic processes.
- The concept of democracy is not clear for the government and the transition of power is not carried out peacefully.
- The fact that the idea of democracy is not clear in the minds of the Arab elite who rule the nation. Because the elite layer, which was born in the era of tyranny and grew up in this era, is divided into two groups - ideological and secular liberal. The goal of the second group is to condone the unbridled restriction of personal freedoms, especially the exploitation of women under the guise of gender equality, and to fight those who oppose it by accusing them of being conservative. Instead of unrestrained personal freedoms, Islamic elites try to introduce a model of social behavior that is harmonious with creation into people's lives and lifestyles. These elites have long viewed the concept of democracy as a western cultural invasion that must be fought against. Also, the Arab elite of the leftist party hates democracy and considers coercion as the main means of achieving peace and stability.
- Most representatives of the Arab elite consider each other rivals and try to defeat their opponents at the first opportunity.
The above reasons increased tyranny in Arab countries and provided a golden opportunity to strengthen government reins after the revolutions.

Political poverty
Use of political elites: Many Arab elites have not experienced a real political struggle for democracy and sacrifice for it. We meet many representatives of ideological currents fighting against democratic thought in order to attract the attention of the ruler. As soon as Mustabid invites them to rule with him and share the wealth of the country together, many of them oppose the idea of democracy and try to justify this tyrannical state to the people by adorning it with various names.
The backwardness of the electoral system in the Arab countries: After the revolutions of the Arab peoples, it became clear that the political and legal elites did not have the details of what they wanted. They are elites who know what they don't want but don't know what they want.
This is a natural consequence of the great political poverty left behind by authoritarian regimes and affecting all classes of society. These actions of the ruling regimes were and have been to destroy any state of consciousness, any future democratic life, even after they are gone.
In republican systems, there was a lack of knowledge and understanding of the most important rules of governance, because the philosophy of democratic republican regimes is based on the idea that the president himself performs the functions of governance. For this, all institutions of the deep state must be aligned with his program and views.
The electoral systems introduced by the revolutionary forces focused on how to bring the elected president to power, but they did not recognize the importance of giving the elected president a chance to truly rule.
As long as the deep state, the appointment and dismissal of its leaders are not under the power and decisions of the president, there can be no question of the president's independent management.
As for Arab parliamentary systems of government, in the original parliamentary philosophy of government, the majority rules, legislates, protects, and approves the rulers' decrees, while the minority observes and, if necessary, opposes. We have witnessed how the idea that all this can be realized only through the electoral system of the majority and the minority in the parliament has been deprived of its essence.
Stealing democracy
This situation is not observed in the Arab parliamentary systems, where in most cases no party has a majority in the parliament, and in the political sense, suspended parliaments are established. This led the political forces to shift to coalition and quota governments, which in effect presented the ugliest image of parliamentary governance.
All this was the result of defects in legislation and electoral systems, primarily the absence of minimum and maximum quorum limits in the electoral system. This led to the emergence of parliaments of various political minorities that were unable to govern.
Democracy cannot produce real results unless it is based on a state of competition between those who are best at managing and redistributing public assets and budgets.
Anyone who can use brute force to resolve conflicts and antagonisms with his opponent in the democratic race is corrupting democracy. In the presence of weapons and hard power, the power of program and proposal is lost, and democracy loses its value and philosophy.
Clear standards
The Arabs' use of blood ties and tribalism in electoral struggles is contrary to the idea and philosophy of democracy. Using tribes to prove tribal power, influence, power and control in electoral contests and turning them from social units into seasonal political units renders the democratic process meaningless and tarnishes its results.
Also, the rise of political populism and its spread among the Arab peoples - the attempt to present democracy as a magic wand for quick solutions to people's problems, demands and aspirations - has also had the effect of undermining the entire democratic process. We have discovered how political populism during the Arab revolutions was able to make some people cry out against democracy, support and applaud dictatorships, and support the dismantling of state institutions in favor of dictators.
Western democracy has been able to set clear standards for the use of force and to prevent clerics from hijacking the democratic process, and because of Western demographics, it has not faced a tribal problem, but it has yet to fully protect itself from businessmen by neutralizing money. Although there have been legislative attempts to mitigate the situation, they have not been able to eliminate the role of money in corrupting the political process. Legislation has been developed to define certain offences. restrictions on election campaigning, disclosure of sources of funding and prohibition of external financing of election campaigns, criminalization of defamation and money laundering...etc.
Populism in the West still affects the democratic process and election results to varying degrees from time to time, but their populism has certainly not reached the level of hostility and democracy-damaging it has in Arab countries, except for Trump's attempt to dominate established institutions and resist prosecution.
In order to build a real and influential Arab democratic state, we must transform democracy into a culture and lifestyle by spreading its knowledge and sciences at all levels of school and university education, and educate the Arab political elite so that democracy has its own strategic path, expresses its ideas and projects. .
At the same time, we must establish strong legislative and political principles that protect the democratic process from its four destroyers: "the use of hard power, errant clergy, tribalism and cheap political populism."
Muhammad al-Awdat
Jordanian lawyer and writer

The opinions expressed in the articles are those of the author and may not reflect the views of the editors.

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